1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to computerized information management and processing systems generally, and more particularly to a system and method for managing information for a credit decision-making process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many credit decisions involve a creditor; a customer of the creditor who wishes to receive a loan of money or a line of credit to make a purchase of an item of property (herein “potential borrower” and “property,” respectively), e.g., of a house; and a business partner, such as a mortgage broker. The creditor, potential borrower, and business partner work together for the creditor to extend credit to the potential borrower. A loan approval is used herein as an example of a type of credit decision requiring multiple parties to communicate information related to the potential borrower, the property, and types of credit that can be extended. Herein, the term “potential borrower” includes both natural and legal persons, such as a corporation. The term “creditor” refers to any credit decision-making institution and/or any entity designated by such an institution to perform credit decision-making functions on the institution's behalf. “Business partner” refers to a business partner, such as a mortgage broker or realtor, with which the creditor and/or potential borrower work to facilitate the credit decision-making process.
Such credit decision-making requires the creditor to collect information, such as information about the property that the potential borrower wishes to purchase and information about the potential borrower to render a decision as to his or her creditworthiness and thus final approval of the loan. In addition, the credit decision-making process includes making at least part of the information obtained during the loan approval process available to creditor personnel, the business partner, and the potential borrower.
Such credit decision-making generally also requires that the creditor impose conditions on approving the loan, such as requiring proof of employment and/or income. Several rounds of intermediate approvals may occur before a final credit approval is made; for example, there may be a conditional loan approval when the potential borrower meets certain credit conditions, and additional approvals of the property to be purchased, such as a title report approval. The term “final credit approval” is used herein to indicate the last approval in the credit decision-making process. The final credit approval leads to a legal offer to the loan applicant that forms a binding contract upon acceptance. Such credit decision-making includes scheduling certain events to occur for the purchase for which the loan is made to be closed, such as the satisfaction of specific conditions and the closing date itself.
The process described above is generally handled by a variety of creditor personnel, the business partner, and the potential customer, using a variety of paper forms, computer systems, software programs, and computer operators (e.g., for entering data into a computer).
The information, conditions, and schedule may be reviewed by several people, entered into various computer systems, and presented in various written or printed formats. As a result, confidentiality may become a problem as dissemination of the information increases and, as more people are involved in the evaluation process, the likelihood of human error increases. In addition, when the data are entered into various computer systems, problems with inconsistency and inefficiency may arise.
Furthermore, for the people involved in the process, generally no single location, document, computer software program, or other source exists at which all the information pertinent to any given person involved in the process can be accessed. In addition, there is generally no single means by which a given person involved in the process is notified of changes to the items of information that are pertinent to that person. That person generally has to ask to be made aware of changes or is notified by telephone call or letter. Also, there is generally no convenient way for the people involved in the process to request changes to the schedule of events, making all of the other people who need to be involved in such a change aware of the request.
What is needed is an integrated credit decision-making process that allows the people involved in the credit decision-making process to provide much or all of the information available to him or her into a central repository or repositories for the information used to make a final credit decision; to access the information pertinent to their role in the process; to be made aware of changes to items of information that are pertinent to them; and to make requests for changes in the scheduling of events to the other people involved in the scheduling of those events.